The psychology of sanctions

Is it the twentieth package of sanctions that the European Union is about to impose on Russia? The European Union seems to never be running out of things – economic, political, cultural – it can sanction. Strange, isn’t it? Either the European Union commissioners knew right from the start that the sanctions would be ineffective or…? Or what? Maybe the European Union loves playing big and pontificating to the whole world about morals. Yet, even the citizens of the European Union do not seem to care which package it is now.

Are the European Union commissioners not aware of the fact that they are losing face every time they impose a new packet of sanctions and they remain ineffective? What they do is laughable. Imagine a policeman telling a ruffian to behave himself or else. Or else the policeman will call him names, or else the policeman will report on him to the higher authorities, or else the policeman will not smile at the ruffian, or else… Laughable.

Obviously by imposing those numerous packages of sanctions the commissioners want to impress it on the Europeans that they still matter and that they are to be reckoned with in the whole world.

Or maybe it is a pseudo-religious cult that is being practised in Brussels? You know, something like voodoo. The commissioners are piercing the doll representing Putin with pins and needles in the hope that those pins and needles will bring about his disease and demise? Consecutive packages of sanctions are such pins and needles. Maybe the twenty-first or the twenty-ninth, or the thirty-fourth package will ultimately bring about another February or October revolution in Russia, topple the government and the hated president, and render Russia helpless and defenceless like she was in 1917 and later or 1991 and later? Who knows? Let the commissioners do their best.

Or maybe it is a travesty of the practice of the Catholic Church when she used to anathemize those who dared to believe in ways different from what the Petrine throne pontificated about? Well, the commissioners are very distant from any religion, but there may be more in their behaviour than meets the eye. Brussels may have become an anti-church replica of the Vatican with all the trappings of the latter turned inside out. For the commissioners imposing ineffective sanctions are sort of anathemizing those they do not like (read: those who do not bow and crape to them). If you are familiar with medieval history of Europe (Europe!) then you will have remembered the popes who would anathemize monarchs and whole kingdoms and principalities. Isn’t it the same now? It is not done in the name of God this time, but in the name of human rights and democracy, but then what’s the difference? In either case – be it the popes or the commissioners – anathema is a psychological and ideological weapon with which to combat the political enemy.

For that matter think of the 28-point peace plan that is being discussed nowadays. The plan is American but some of its contents might as will have been drafted by the European Union commissioners, like the point saying that if Russia bends over backwards she will be magnanimously accepted back to the international (read: Western) community, she will again be regarded with dignity, she will stop being the world’s pariah. Isn’t it the same as we had it in the Middle Ages? If the monarch recanted his errors and kowtowed to the pope, the anathema was lifted and he was again regarded as a regular member of the community of the decent. Yet, such instances of medieval anathema worked only so much. Anathema worked in a couple of instances until it began to be overused and its effectiveness wore off. Especially when it was applied too often… like the packets of sanctions. The commissioners should have learnt it from history.

But then, I have always suspected the commissioners to have been weak in history. Rational are they not, nor do they have much knowledge about anything. Contrarily, they fit the definition of being deeply religious individuals. No, they do not believe in the Christian God or any god for that matter. They believe in their omnipotence, in Mother Earth, in human rights, in rainbow rights, in globalism, and the like. Yet, religion is religion. It needs its god or gods (nature, humans, animals) and its Satan (Putin) and his devils (the leaders of China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela etc.). It also needs a set of commandments (you shall honour the Pachamama, your Mother Earth, you shall elevate man above all things but not above nature, you shall perform two minutes of hate against the dictators and regimes) and it needs theological language: there are governments and presidents as opposed to dictators and regimes, for instance. The world is black and white, torn between heaven and hell, and we are the good ones while they are the bad ones. Very simple.

Thus the consecutive packages of sanctions serve the religious purpose of anathemizing the bad ones, those who are the problem. They need to do penance and atone for all the wrong they have done. We on the other hand are faultless. We have the right to pass judgement over others. They, obviously, do not have this right because they are the problem.

We may watch another session of anathemizing those that the European Union regards as heretics. The Europeans will light up candles, say a solemn formula and then cast those candles on the floor, believing that they have just triggered the anathema to work. Candles are consecutive packets and the accompanying formulas are the speeches in which the good tell the other good gathered in their echo chamber of the like minded that they are collectively the good ones and as such have the right to reprimand the bad ones who should eventually realize that they really are the bad ones. To this end the good ones will reprimand the bad ones on and on (package after package after another package of sanctions) till the bad ones come to their senses.

They should have sent the Western warmongers packing but they didn’t

They are dying and dying and dying. They have been dying for almost four years now. The Ukrainian soldiers. They have been dying for the delusion of Ukraine being non-Russia – anti-Russia, and for the delusion of Ukraine becoming a NATO member, and for the delusion of Ukraine becoming a sovereign state. Now Washington has rolled out a twenty-eight-point peace plan for the conclusion of the conflict, and some of the points of this plan say it openly that Ukraine will not be a NATO member, that Ukraine’s independence or sovereignty will be guaranteed by the United States (is it then sovereignty?) and that Ukraine will stop persecuting the Russian language or that part of the Orthodox Church that obeyed Moscow. And – to top it all – Kiev will have to cede territory to Russia.

Hundreds of thousands of men have died for what? Hundreds of thousands of men have died to compel reality to fulfil Ukraine’s political wish list. Hundreds of thousands of men have died so that the EU commissioners could play their political games. Hundreds of thousands of men have died as if the outcome of a war against Russia could not have been envisaged!

Ukraine’s political class should have a troubled, uneasy conscience. Ukraine’s political class should feel constant pricks of conscience. But do they have a conscience? Are they empaths? Barely. People holding the reigns of power rarely are. Anywhere, not merely in Ukraine. That’s why they have managed to make it to the top in politics (or business). Do the members of Ukraine’s ruling class feel responsibility for what they have done? Can they look straight in the face of the relatives of the fallen soldiers?

A country’s leaders should behave towards their country’s citizens like caring and responsible parents towards their children. A caring and responsible president should act like – forgive the pathos – a nation’s father. What should the purpose of a caring and responsible leader be? Yes, right, it should be the material welfare and the psychological wellbeing of the citizens. A responsible leader pursues these two goals. A responsible leader does not pursue a wish list because reality does not honour wish lists. A responsible leader should not even look for justice or sovereign rights out there in the world. These are mental constructs which – again – reality does not respect.

Imagine a father driving with his family somewhere and encountering irresponsible drivers along the way. What does a responsible father do? How does he behave? It might be that he has the right of way, but the other driver does not want to yield this right to him. Will the caring a responsible father drive on anyway because he has the right of way? Will he put the lives of his wife and children at risk by stubbornly driving on only because he has the right of way and he wants to exercise this right? Will he accelerate putting his vehicle on a collision course even if the other vehicle, the one that does not want to yield way to him, is a juggernaut?

Is Russia not a juggernaut when compared to Ukraine? What did Ukraine’s ruling class expect? Ah, yes, they knew it right from the start that they would not prevail against the Russian juggernaut, but they counted on the aid from the European Union and especially the United States! If that was the case, then they should have remembered the classic Western movie under the title High Noon. The town’s marshal could not enlist the support of a single man. Yes, the marshal single-handedly routs the four members of Miller’s gang, but then it is a movie, and so in this respect the movie’s plot runs counter to reality. Ukraine’s ruling class should have known better. Ukraine’s ruling class should have also known that apart from the movie’s happy ending, the remaining plot depicts reality one to one: if you count on anybody’s help, then think again.

Ukraine’s ruling class will have been familiar with High Noon: the whole world is familiar with it. At least some of the members of Ukraine’s ruling class will also have been familiar with Aesop’s tales, some of which carry the same message: self-help is the best help. They should have recalled a tale of a bird who had a nest in a field of corn and who did not let herself be bothered by the alarmist stories of her nestlings when they would tell her what they had heard from the owner of the field. She remained calm so long as she herd from her nestlings that the owner of the field counted and the help of his relatives and neighbours in reaping the corn, thus putting her nest at danger. She only began to worry when she heard from her nestlings that the owner of the field decided to begin the harvest on his own. Only then did she know that now it was for real. The story, as old as the world, teaches you and me that you cannot – you should not – you must not rely on anybody’s help, especially if the help calls for huge sacrifices on the part of the helper. Shouldn’t Ukraine’s ruling classes have known it? Shouldn’t the ruling classes anywhere in the world know this age-old truth?

Four years ago Ukraine was larger by the four provinces, while eleven years ago it also controlled Crimea. Three and more years ago Ukraine’s population was much larger, especially its male population. Now all this – men and territory – is gone, gone irretrievably because Ukraine’s political class either wanted to prove a point taken straight from wishful thinking or refused to guard Ukraine’s interests trading them for the West’s interests. As a result, Ukraine let itself be used and abused and misused. The war is now in its final stages, territorial and human loss is unavoidable, while Ukraine’s sovereignty remains an unattainable dream: if Kiev does not need to obey Moscow, it certainly must obey Washington and Brussels. Was this outcome worth the hundreds of thousands dead or wounded, the territorial loss and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure?

Who in his right senses thought that Ukraine could become a NATO member without expecting Russia’s preventive and retaliatory reaction? Did nobody see what was coming? Obviously, Mexico militarily allied with China or Russia, hosting Chinese or Russian military bases – advisors – centres would be an abomination to the United States! Washington would intervene in Mexico in the same way as Moscow has in Ukraine. Really, was there no one in his right senses among the ranks of Ukraine’s political class to see how dangerous a game they were playing?

How sad! As we speak Ukrainians are dying and dying and dying by the thousands, and they have been dying for almost four years now in order to… finally and officially block Ukraine’s NATO membership for ever, and in order for Russia to gain some of Ukraine’s territory! What a calamity, what senselessness, what a disaster! And Ukraine’s fate will be decided by Washington and Moscow, not even by Brussels – Ukraine’s best friend – to say nothing of Kiev! Is that the sovereignty that Ukraine so desperately wanted to achieve?

One can make a safe guess that the closest family members of Ukraine’s ruling class have never ever exposed themselves to real warfare at the front. That explains why they did not care about common Ukrainians who have rotted and continue to rot in the trenches, bunkers and under the swarms of drones, for if the political class had had sons at the front, they would have long finished this senseless war; nay, they would not have allowed this war to break out, and they would have sent the Western warmongers packing.

An alliance of the enemies over Poland

The European Union hates patriotism, which the EU labels nationalism. The European Union hates Belarus, which it regards as a dictatorship and Russia’s reliable ally. Belarus does not like the European Union because the European Union does not like Belarus. Up to now the distribution of political forces is clear, and yet…

…and yet the European Union, which dislikes Belarus, and Belarus, which dislikes the European Union, are in bed with each other when it comes to Poland: they both hate Polish patriotism, which they call – yes – nationalism.

For a few decades now 11 November – the Polish national holiday, the Independence Day – attracts tens – if not more – of thousands of people who march along the main streets in Warsaw, and also in other larger cities. It is not the so-called pride parade, which the EU would embrace wholeheartedly and consequently for which Poland would be praised to the skies. No, these are patriotic marches, waving thousands and thousands of Polish national flags with not a single flag of the European Union to be seen. These are the marches that exude intense patriotism, national pride, connection with the past, and national unity. These are the marches that defy the European Union. These are the marches that pose a threat to the European Union. Well, was it not in Poland where the collapse of the Soviet system began? Was it not in Poland where the nation’s patriotism coupled with the nation’s religiosity armed the people spiritually to defy both the local communist authorities and the Soviet Union as such? Is not not going to be Poland again that will disrupt the European Union from inside the way it disrupted the Eastern bloc four decades ago? So the EU fears and hates those marches and so do the EU’s political outposts operating in Poland, outposts rallying citizens of Poland who are, indeed, native speakers of Polish, but whose mentality is barely Polish. Those are the citizens who are rather ashamed of being Polish, citizens who would much rather be European than Polish, or cosmopolitan than Polish. These are the citizens who receive full backing from the European Union.

One might tend to think that if there are anti-EU forces within Poland, Belarus would be glad to make use of them. After all: the enemy (the patriotic share of the Polish nation) of my enemy (the European Union) is my ally. But no. Not in the least. Since Poland’s policy towards Belarus is not particularly friendly (which is putting it mildly), Minsk will not let any opportunity slip to have its political revenge. So the Belorussian mass-media comment the independence march taking place in Warsaw in just as unfriendly a way as the mass-media subordinated to the EU commissioners and ideologues. The Belorussian mass-media liken the Warsaw Independence Day marches to… fascist marches once practised in the Third Reich in the 1930s of the previous century. The vocabulary used to describe those Warsaw marches features such words and phrases as aggressive parades, torch-bearers, maddened crowds, nationalists who want to burn all that stands in their way. The listener can almost hear the word fascist or Nazi between the lines. No, these words are not spoken, but the selection of phrases along with the selection of shots from the streets do the job very well: the associations with the Third Reich marches complete with torches and flags springs to mind without fail.

To think of it: both the European Union, which dislikes Belarus, and Belarus, which dislikes the European Union, hate Polish patriotism and, as a result, use more or less the same vocabulary to give vent to their resentment against Polish national feelings. You might be beside yourself with wonder why Minsk does not see it fit to support forces in an EU member-state, forces that are potentially dangerous and disruptive for the integrity of the European Union. Has hatred towards Poland blinded the Belarus authorities? Yes, Poland is an easier target in comparison with the European Union, but at the same time the weakening of the EU’s integrity through Polish patriots and a possible future fragmentation or even dismemberment of the union is a much more ambitious and politically profitable aim, is it not? Anyway, if I were Belarus’s leader, I’d support the Independence Day marches in Warsaw and anywhere in Poland rather than taking exception to them.

The rapacious elites destroy their own countries

It is sad but it is true: the elites or the ruling classes are hellbent on destroying their nations and their states. They are doing it in a variety of ways but they are doing it without a shadow of a doubt. They feel themselves deracinated from their respective nations and as a result they are spinning ideas of being citizens of the world where there are no nations, no races, no religions, and no cultures. Since the members of these elites are rich and influential, they can afford to live in nice and pleasant palaces or hotels, they can afford to travel the world and always have a lodging in a luxurious hotel, be it Nairobi or Karachi, where they are taken very good care of by the servicemen and servicewomen of all skin colours who necessarily speak English and smile all the time in the presence of the affluent travellers.

If a healthy elite could be compared to the head while the elite’s nation – to the rest of the body, then the depraved elites could be compared to the head that is cut off from the rest of the body. And that’s the problem. The head connected to its body feels the body’s pains and ailments acutely and acts on them appropriately. The head that is disconnected from its body feels absolutely nothing. The body may be suffering and ailing, and still the head does not respond to it. It’s even worse: a disconnected elite will tend to experiment with the body submitting it to any and all tests irrespective of whether those tests or experiments are painful, damaging or simply unpleasant.

The Western elites – the Western heads – came upon the ideas of applying to their bodies (nations) ethnic replacement, green economy, and rainbow sexuality. They are really intent on imposing those ‘values’ and they seem to be looking from afar how the experiment is developing. The lower classes are complaining? Let them. They can do nothing about what is being done to them. They are viewed as laboratory mice or laboratory rats. Does an experimenter care what the mice or the rats are feeling while being examined or tested? The British, French, German, Swedish and other guinea-pigs do not like the reality created by their elites, but then they are no more than guinea-pigs. No amount of resistance seems to matter to the experimenters.

That Eastern elites – while following everything that is propagated by their Western counterparts and their Western gurus – provide a kind of added value to this mix: they exploit their nations – their mice and rats – and export most of the money to the banks run by their Western colleagues or they invest that money in property and other goods in the countries run by their Western colleagues. They purchase palaces and yachts, they purchase expensive automobiles or invest in the shares issued by Western entrepreneurs or the bonds of the Western governments. We all remember Russian oligarchs who have invested in… the British football clubs. Why couldn’t they invest in the Russian football teams?

Why? They had amassed fortunes in their countries, exploiting (stealing from) their own nations – their co-citizens – so why couldn’t they give some of that money back to that same country, their own co-citizens?

Both kinds of of rapacious and disconnected elites are in for a rude awakening. The head cannot live disconnected from the body for a long time. It will, therefore, sooner or later, be replaced.

War is a blessing while people are like grass

The war in Ukraine is dragging on. The end is nowhere in sight. It is dragging on and soon it will be entering its fourth year. Reason suggests that Russia with its demographic and industrial potential could put the hostilities to a rapid end. Nothing of the sort is happening. Reason suggests that Ukraine should lay down its arms since there is no way it can regain lost territories, not to speak of winning over its much stronger neighbour. Nothing of the sort is happening. Reason also suggests that the West should work towards ending the hostilities because if Ukraine’s defeat eventually comes, the EU will be politically worse off. Nothing of the sort is happening. Why?

Russia. Russia has been benefiting from the war effort just like the United States benefited from the First World War and the Second World War: at that time American economy was boosted, and so is Russia’s economy today. Russia is benefiting from the war also in terms of its society rallying around the head of the state. Precisely as it was the case with the United States in both world wars, so it is now in the case of Russia: it is not directly affected by the hostilities it. Yes, Russian soldiers are dying or are wounded, but Russian soil and Russian civilians remain for all practical purposes unscathed.

The European Union. The European Union is in decline. A decline caused by its deviant green ideology, by the indiscriminate acceptance of the influx of foreigners, and lastly by its economic problems brought about by the renunciation of cheap Russian gas. The welfare state is becoming overburdened, the governments and heads of state are increasingly unpopular while national and right-wing parties are on the political rise. Not infrequently people take to the streets and show their disdain for their leaders. The European dream is shattered. What then are the EU managers trying to do the save the day? Yes, they are trying to find a scapegoat for all the negative phenomena. This scapegoat is Russia. A very convenient scapegoat. All economic problems can now be blamed on the aggressor from the east, all shortages and shortcomings – on the ‘Mongols’ looming large on the eastern horizon. Europeans ought only to understand what is at stake, and rally round the EU commissioners in a joint attempt to defend the Garden against the Jungle.

The United States. The United States has used the war in Ukraine not only to weaken Russia, but also to subjugate Europe. Yes, Washington knows that Russia will eventually win, but in the process it will lose some of the people, and it will be kept busy, letting Washington more leeway elsewhere in the world. Europe has been conveniently rendered economically impotent, which is another gain for Americans. A competitor has been removed. The competitor’s reliance on Russian energy sources has been significantly lowered. Washington is cherishing high hopes that some of Europe’s industries and businesses will relocate to the United States, which will further deindustrialize the Old Continent and re-industrialize America.

What is the attitude of the three mentioned players to Ukrainians?

Russia. Russia recognizes in Ukrainians brothers by ethnicity. That is one of the reasons why Russian troops steer clear of destroying civilian objects and objects of cultural heritage. Concurrently, Russian troops are fighting hard culling the Banderite-type troops. This alone will render Ukraine less hostile to Russia. Also, the Russian army is destroying Ukraine’s military, thus making it no match to the Russian Federation in the nearest future. The destruction of the civilian infrastructure will make it barely possible for Ukraine to be accepted as a member of the European Union.

The European Union. The European Union couldn’t care less about Ukrainian life though, sure enough, the EU managers say they do. Ukrainian lives are pawns on the geopolitical chessboard and are willingly sacrificed on the altar of combating Russia. And what a paradox! The EU commissioners are gladly embracing ‘refugees’ from Africa and Asia who allegedly escape from war while they would gladly see all Ukrainian able-bodied men drafted into the Ukrainian army and sent to the front! The European Union accepts males from the Third World: why would it rather not accept all Ukrainian men who want to be drafted? True, Europeans are not as yet rounding Ukrainian men up in their cities and sending them back home, but such ideas have emerged now and again, here and there.

The United States. The United States views Ukraine precisely as Europe does: after all it was Zbigniew Brzezinski, the American politician and political thinker, who famously framed the globe as a chessboard. That’s precisely how the big players think about nations and countries: nations are chessmen while their territories are black and white squares of the chessboard. Accordingly, you sacrifice a chessman or you let go of a square as the case may be. The United States is one player, Russia or China is the other. Anything between them is – as we have already said – chessmen and chessboard squares. That’s all there is to it.

That’s also precisely how the managers of the world view the common people and their countries. The European elites may be whipping up war hysteria, but they themselves will not handle rifles or lie in trenches. Far be it from them! Whatever they want to impose on the common man and woman, they themselves prefer not to be affected by. Immigrants by the million for the common European to live with on a daily basis, but the commissioners live in places where they do not need to bother about strangers. Is it any different with war? No. Consider Ukraine’s President Zelensky. How has he experienced the three years of hostilities? He’s been travelling the world over, has been warmly received everywhere, and has given hundreds of interviews and made hundreds speeches, issuing hundreds of statements. How about the members of the Ukrainian government, of Ukraine’s parliament, how about higher officers? Pretty much the same story.

It has always been so throughout human history. Napoleon Bonaparte had half a million soldiers killed, frozen, or maimed in Russian steppes, but he himself made sure to be able to escape from the enemy and the frost in a comfortable coach, wrapped in warm furs. Adolf Hitler and his entourage? After the Red Army had crossed the Oder and was approaching Berlin, he and his ministers and generals must have realized that the end was inevitable and that the end was just round the corner. Some of them must have already taken the decision to commit suicide, and yet in order to prolong their lives by mere three-four months they did not stop the war. Rather, they sent new waves of troops – teenagers and the elderly – and added hundreds of thousands if not millions deaths to the huge overall toll.

For the managers of the world affairs, war is a game, a game that thrills them because it is a game played in reality. It is not a computer game. Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland conspired with Tsar Peter I of Russia to attack Sweden in the latter’s possession on the Baltic. The war, which began in 1700 and lasted till 1721, soon after its outbreak turned to be a catastrophe for Saxony and partly for Russia. Augustus was forced to draft new and new men to either defend his country or help his Russian ally. When someone pointed to him that so many men had died and so many more were about to die, he shrugged his shoulders and merely replied: people are like grass. The more you trample it, the more abundantly it will regrow.

Ribbentrop-Molotov (1939) occurred in the wake of Chamberlain-Hitler (1938)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech during one of the sessions of the Valdai International Discussion Club (September 29 – October 2). That’s already a traditon: Vladimir Putin is habitually invited to to sessions of the Club, and this year was no exception. The speech was was followed by about two hours of questions from the journalists and the president’s answers. In both parts of his presence at Valdai, the Russian President laid down Russia’s point of view, Russia’s expectations, and Russia’s intentions.

[1] The world should be rid of military blocs. They have no purpose. Or – if there needs to be a military bloc – let it be one big military bloc – like NATO – but inclusive of all countries. Russia twice attempted to become a member of the Atlantic alliance: in 1954 (the being a part of the Soviet Union), and then in 2000. In either case Russia’s proposals have been turned down. Why? President Putin recounted his 2000 meeting with President Clinton and his suggestion concerning Russia’s NATO membership. The American president was willing to accept the proposal in the morning, only to turn it down later in the day, saying that the time was not right yet. Why? When would the time be right? asked Russia’s president.

[2] In anti-Russian narrative the West is glaringly biased in its actions and unfair in its propaganda. Take the historical policy, said the president. Much fuss is about the so-called Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. As a result of this pact signed by foreign ministers of respectively the Third Reich and the Soviet Union Poland was dismembered in the following weeks. Yet, the West glosses over the preceding Munich Agreement of 1938 between the British and French prime ministers Chamberlain and Daladier on the one hand and the rulers of Italy and Germany – Mussolini and Hitler – on the other within the framework of which Czechoslovakia was dismembered within the following weeks. Why do Western propagandists lay emphasis on the former and ignore the latter?

[3] Similarly, if Russia is a paper tiger, as President Donald Trump famously said, and this paper tiger – that is Russia – is successfully fighting in Ukraine against NATO, then what NATO is? asked Vladimir Putin to the amusement of the audience.

[4] Though the war in Ukraine is waged and the collective West appears to be bellicose towards Russia, nonetheless the United States keeps importing Russian uranium for American nuclear power plants, and Russia appears to be America’s second largest provider of this resource. This Russo-American deal should continue, said the Russian president, because it serves the interests of both partners, but why then can’t Western Europe purchase Russian gas? Why does the United States demand that China and India stop purchasing Russian gas and oil? Obviously, the old rule of quod licet Iovi, not licet bovi applies here.

[5] The West is deteriorating, losing its identity, having problems with immigrants and others. So, rather than being focused on Russia, the West ought to deal with its internal problems. The loss of cultural identity has brought about a new phenomenon: an ever larger stream of people from the West is arriving in Russia to settle. One of the most striking examples is the case of Michael Gloss, son of a deputy director of the CIA, who arrived in Russia and voluntarily joined the Russian armed forces to fight against Ukraine. He was accepted, trained and sent to the front where he was killed. He was killed by a Ukrainian drone, while being wounded and trying to help his Russian mate. The Russian authorities granted him an order for bravery and requested Steve Witkoff – President Trump’s special enboy to Moscow – to hand it over to his family. Michael Gloss fought for Russia as he viewed Russia as a guard of traditional values that are shrinking in the West. They are shrinking so rapidly and have shrunk so much that even those Russian intellectuals – said Vladimir Putin – who have always dreamt about the West as paradise, as a model for Russia, as the Garden of Eden, began to say that the Europe that they have loved so much is no more.

[6] The Russian President revealed Ukrainian losses: in September 2025 alone Ukraine had 44.700 casualties of which 50% were irretrievable. During the same time Kiev could send to the front 18.000 of those drafted and 14.000 from hospitals as replacements, which means that the Ukrainian Army was short of 11.000 troops. The Russian President also said that between January and August of the current year as many as 150.000 Ukrainian soldiers deserted the ranks. Some surrendered willingly to the Russian troops, although that was a hard task on their part because they were often killed by drones operated by mercenaries who do not care about Ukrainian lives.

[7] Vladimir Putin said that Russia along with China and India and others do not want to dethrone the dollar: the fact that Russia, China and India and other countries are beginning to use other currencies in their trade is a simple result of the West’s financial policy that leaves Russia, and China, and others no other way as to bypass the dollar.

[8] President Vladimir Putin praised President Donald Trump and said, indeed, that he believed that the war would not have broken out had Donald Trump been the American president; and, yes – said the president – Donald Trump is a man who has the ability to listen to his interlocutor, to hear him out, and grasp his point of view.

[9] Unfortunately, just as once it was the Soviet Union that would impose its ideology on other countries, now this attitude has been adopted by the United States in Washington’s attempt to homogenize the world and create it in America’s image.

[10] At a point during the questions-and-answers part, Vladimir Putin confessed to being an ardent reader of poetry, especially Alexander Pushkin. From a volume of his poetry the Russian president read out loud a larger fragment of the poem that Pushkin entitled The Anniversary of (the Battle of) Borodino (Бородинская годовщина). The text refers to the age-long dream of the West to subjugate Russia. The poem was composed in 1831 and occasioned by the 1830-31 Polish anti-Russian uprising, which had the political and moral backing of the West. The message that the Russian president wanted to put across was that the strife between the West and Russia is of very long standing.

Donald Trump’s Machiavellian plan to finish the war?

Ukraine’s president, European managers and all anti-Russian forces are beside themselves with joy because of the recent statement that the American President Donald Trump made on Truth Social. The American leader did an about-turn over the war, writing that Ukraine could successfully oppose its enemy and – and that is what sent positive shock waves across the Western world – Ukraine can regain all its lost territories. The EU leaders must have heaved a huge sigh of relief. Eventually the United States has been brought over to the point of view of the coalition of the willing!

Donald Trump’s words are kind of weird, and they are kind of not. They are weird because they represent a complete opposite to what the president used to say for the last few months: Ukraine was losing to Russia and had to be ready to cede some territory. Yet, the same words are not weird because President Donald Trump has accustomed us to this nice trait of his character that he loves saying two opposite things, sometimes within the same day or even in the same breath. Anyone who’s been paying attention to the American presidents statements should have grown accustomed to this particular style of his communication with the public.

Let us assume, however, that Donald Trump is going to stick to this statement. That means that the United States is from now on supporting Ukrainian war effort, at least psychologically; that also means that the European Union does not need to bother about Americans trying to hold Brussels back from aiding Ukraine in one way or another; and finally, the president’s words encourage those political groupings in Ukraine which might be framed as a pro-war party. An easy interpretation, is it not?

Does Donald Trump believe in what he said? It might be that President Donald Trump has been misinformed and misled by his advisors, and that he really thinks that Ukraine is doing militarily well while Russia is on the verge of an economic, and – what follows – social collapse caused by its war effort. In his statement the president used words and phrases such as paper tiger in reference to the Russian Federation or long queues for gas in reference to Russian economy. Donald Trump may believe in any and all of these things: after all, he does not make an impression of being very well educated and knowledgeable about the world, its geography and history. Some of the president’s earlier statements confirm this observation, like when he said that Russia lost over sixty million casualties during the Second World War (a number three times as large as in reality). The same observation concerning the level of general education and expertise on Russia can easily be extended to the American elites. So much so that they very often let themselves be guided by visceral hatred rather than critical reflection towards their geopolitical opponents.

But there might be something more than meets the eye. It might also be that President Donald Trump is an incarnation of Machiavelli, at least in the understanding and image of the latter that most people share: someone sly and canny. What do we mean? Well, it might be that President Donald Trump is perfectly aware of the vast disproportion of the forces between Ukraine and Russia in favour of the latter, and since he has been unable to bring about peace, and since he’s been thwarted in his peaceful attempts by both the EU and some of his advisors, he devised a Machiavellian plan to accelerate the end of the hostilities by… pushing Ukraine into the conflict with an even greater vigor and gusto: this will make it easier for the Russians to crush Ukrainians and thus bring the war to an end. Stiff resistance and a couple of more failed offensives might prove to be the last nail in Ukraine’s coffin, since the country is running low on manpower, military equipment, and resources. The American president may safely prompt the European Union to continue the aid to Kiev, knowing full well that Brussels is also running low on its resources, financial or otherwise. Ok, if you want to prolong the war, Donald Trump might be thinking, then go on, be at each other’s throat. The more fiercely you will fight, the sooner the end will come. When the lightweight doggedly wishes to hurl himself against the heavyweight and precipitate his own destruction, why should the referee (United States) who has grown tired of the boxing match (the war) intervene?